By Ron Evans
The Wenatchee Valley Museum And Cultural Center is making lemonade from this seemingly endless summer of lemons. 3-D lemonade, to be precise. I know we are all sick to death of even hearing the word ‘virtual’. However, the museum has taken virtual to the next level with a three-dimensional walkthrough of Tomfoolery: Vintage Fun From Wenatchee Cycle & Toy. An experience that puts you in the “physical” space of the exhibit. More than just a slideshow of clickable images, you can casually meander through the impressive and overwhelmingly nostalgic collection. There’s something from just about every era that Wenatchee Cycle & Toy was open in South downtown Wenatchee - which covered six decades - and you will likely be pointing out things you used to own or maybe toys you could only dream about having as a kid.
Nostalgia aside, the show really illustrates so much about how we have changed in terms of popular past-times, but especially in our evolution of design and fabrication. Like an old New York City skyscraper from the 1920’s or a classic American car from the 1950’s, the items in Tomfoolery stand as mile-markers of creativity and craftsmanship throughout the decades. These often forgotten designers and builders are who we have to thank for all things retro looking so damn cool.
Aren’t you just dyin’ to click?
Old bicycles with art deco chain guards and hand painted adornments. Dozens of board games - some early versions of timeless classics, some that have long since gone the way of the Dodo bird. A fascinating locksmith and key section (a corner of the store was designated for this long-running part of the business). And even some toys that are straight-up banned from the market in this newer age of enlightenment. Although you wouldn’t think it would take much enlightenment to realize Yard Darts and radioactive lab sets (with real uranium!) were not grand idears. But after losing (or gaining) a few eyes here and there, we lived and learned.
Museum Curator Of Exhibits Kasey Koski said tracking down these more dangerous toys was a separate side quest itself. “You can’t even buy this stuff on eBay. They’ve put a moratorium on selling dangerous toys. So I really had to dig, but we got our Yard Darts. Still in the box!” Koski says with pride.
Gone. But never forgotten. Look out!
The show is comprised mostly of pieces on loan from Ron and Andrea Lodge (the Lodge family owned Wenatchee Cycle & Toy for 60 years) and members of the community who had these items they’d bought from the beloved shop and held onto them.
LeRoy Wilburn opened Wenatchee Cyclery (it was essentially a revamping of a previous cycle store opened by Jesse Eyer) in 1933 and moved into 228 South Wenatchee Ave. in 1936. After a few different owners and a name change, Archie Lodge took the business over in 1943. The Lodge family owned and ran the shop until its permanent closing in 2000, then called Wenatchee Cycle & Fitness. The closing, a sad necessity due to the big box stores moving in and doing what big box stores do. Choke out the ma and pa shops on Main Street, seemingly overnight. The Lodge family was paramount in getting this exhibit off the ground.
“Ron Lodge kept bringing all this great stuff and at some point I had to say stop, we got enough!” Koski said. “The virtual show opens this Friday (exact time TBD - check wenatcheevalleymuseum.org for more info) but as of now we have released it to all of our museum members and everyone who supported the show and lent us their items.”
Items personalized by longtime Wenatchee Cycle and Toy employee and painter Bob Scanlon.
Local photographer Josh Mullhall shot all the panoramic elements that were then converted to the 3-D floor plan. Then Koski added the captions and pertinent information for each exhibit. The result is truly the next best thing to walking through the actual show..
The museum currently remains closed to the public until Washington State enters Phase II which, of course, is an unknowable date as of now. But the show must go on and they’re already busily putting together their next exhibit, Raising Our Voice: Empowering Women, in honor of the women's suffrage centennial anniversary. The event will be featuring the 90th anniversary show of Women Painters of Washington. The group holds a special connection to the museum as the massive mural in the lobby was painted by one of their original members, Peggy Strong, in 1939. Strong used a special custom rigging that allowed her to continue painting murals after a car accident left her paraplegic. “Along with the art there will be some history of the suffrage movement in Washington State. The plan is to once again put a virtual show together since this exhibit has been in the works for a long time and we have no idea when we will be able to open back up.”
Peggy Strong’s “The Saga Of Wenatchee” mural in the museum’s lobby. At the time, this was the Wenatchee post office.
As fun as the virtual exhibit is, nothing beats being there in person of course. And if you’re one of the many who are sad they couldn’t do just that, fear not. Koski says the show was just too cool to let it solely live in the virtual world. So they are bringing it back next year, along with plenty of activities and peripheral events to go along with it.
“Family game nights, come in and get your bike tuned night, all sorts of fun things planned.” Koski says.
The kinds of things most of us took for granted in those truly golden years. The pre-Covid days.
Show your support to the Wenatchee Valley Museum And Cultural Center by donating at their website and consider becoming a member to help ensure these important exhibits and events continue well beyond these troubled times. And join in on the fun this Friday with a virtual trip down memory lane. Or in this case… Main Street Wenatchee.